~
The next time you are washing your hands and
complain because the water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think
about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the1500s:........
Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in
May,
and still smelled pretty good by June. However,
they were starting to
smell, so
brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odor. Hence the
custom
today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot
water. The man of the house
had
the privilege of the nice clean water, then all
the other sons and men,
then
the women and finally the children. Last of all
the babies. By then the
water
was so dirty you could actually lose someone in
it. Hence the saying,
Don't
throw the baby out with the Bath water.
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high,
with no wood
underneath. It
was the only place for animals to get warm, so
all the cats and other
small
animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it
rained it became slippery
and
sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the
roof. Hence the saying.
It's
raining cats and dogs.
There was nothing to stop things from falling
into the house. This posed
a
real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other
droppings could mess up
your
nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a
sheet hung over the top
afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds
came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had
something other than dirt. Hence
the
saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors
that would get slippery
in
the winter when wet, so they spread thresh
(straw) on floor to help keep
their
footing. As the winter wore on, they added more
thresh until, when you
opened
the door, it would all start slipping outside. A
piece of wood was placed
in
the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen
with a big kettle that
always
hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire
and added things to the
pot.
They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much
meat. They would eat the
stew
for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get
cold overnight and then
start
over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it
that had been there for
quite a
while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas
porridge cold, peas
porridge
in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them
feel quite special l.
When
visitors came over, they would hang up their
bacon to show off. It was a
sign
of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon.
They would cut off a
little
to share with guests and would all sit around and
chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food
with high acid content
caused some of the lead to leach onto the food,
causing lead poisoning
death. This
happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so,
tomatoes
were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers
got the burnt bottom of
the
loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got
the top, or the upper
crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The
combination would
sometimes
knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the
road
would take them for dead and prepare them for
burial. They were laid out
on the
kitchen table for a couple of days and the family
would gather around and
eat
and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom of
holding a
wake.
England is old and small and the local folks
started running out of
places to
bury people. So they would dig up coffins and
would take the bones to a
bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening
these coffins, 1 out of
25 coffins
were found to have scratch marks on the inside
and they realized they had
been
burying people alive. So they would tie a string
on the wrist of the
corpse,
lead it through the coffin and up through the
ground and tie it to a
bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard
all night (the graveyard
shift).
to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be,
saved by the bell or was
considered a ...dead ringer.
...And So Now You Know~ , Makes Sense to Me.
..........
.......
......
